This invention relates to providing a system for improved ground-based simulating of dynamic flight environments occurring during suborbital flight by a flight vehicle and its on-board flight-vehicle systems. More particularly, this invention relates to providing a ground-based system for simulating highly variable pressure environments occurring during substantially complete suborbital flights by a flight vehicle.
Since the mid 1990's, a resurgence of interest has been building for suborbital space flight and the development of a private spaceflight industry. Currently, a number of commercial interests are developing flight-vehicle systems capable of carrying paying participants and micro-gravity scientific payloads to altitudes greater than 330,000 feet. Proposed suborbital vehicles are preferably capable of a conventional “aircraft-style” takeoff and landing and preferably utilize rocket propulsion to propel the crew and payload to near space altitudes. Such flight vehicles are subjected to a highly dynamic and variable progression of exterior-pressure environments during such flights.
Development programs for the above-described suborbital vehicles are inherently complex, typically requiring considerable ground-based support, testing, and pre-certification of flight hardware. For example, the flight vehicle's Environmental Control and Life Support Systems (ECLSS) must be rigorously tested to assure full and complete operation during the entire suborbital flight. ECLSS customarily function to provide a crew-habitable environment within the flight vehicle in addition to providing necessary cooling or heating of thermally sensitive onboard systems and components.
Currently, no ground-based system exists that provides essentially continuous altitude/pressure simulations correlating with the pressure-time profiles of essentially a full suborbital vehicle flight. Access to such simulated variable-pressure environments would be highly useful in ground-based testing of flight-vehicle systems, and especially in the testing and certification of Environmental Control and Life Support Systems (ECLSS) used during such high-altitude flights.